what IS Amanda Misiti doing in Africa?

I just realized it has been almost a year since I have blogged. I am sorry I haven't been more on top of this. My internet time is so limited, and I prefer talking with people directly rather than this semi-creepy mass form of communication. The good news is, it won't be all that long before I can talk with people individually, and in person (probably mid-August-early September). But I thought I would write up an update and try to address the question, what exactly is Amanda Misiti doing in Africa?
I realize its probably something I have been vague on in the past, as it is sometimes easier to explain how I am feeling or what is going on in my social circle. Also, it is a question we volunteers often struggle with, since our work is generally not very structured or concrete in the way that work is in the U.S. (i.e. a 9-5 job). Behavior change, which is the best work we can do as PCV's (admission: I just attended a week long conference on behavior change) is difficult but does not always sound like work.
As my service winds down, I can't help but be conflicted: as excited as I am to re-enter North America and my family and friends' lives, (and my American life, for that matter) you do become so accustomed to your life here, and attached to your Malian family, friends and work. Leaving won't be easy, either.
My Peace Corps boss just came to my site to talk about my replacement with my community, and as the reality hit me more, I started crying and then Djegue (formerly spelled Jege) started crying . . . In the beginning you wonder how you will possibly last two years here and in the end there is a part of you that wonders how you will leave. (And there is yet another part of me that regularly plans meals, trips, careers, degrees, and coffee/shopping dates in America.)
After I got back from Italy I missed my family a lot, the comfort of family and having them be more a routine part of my life. It was exacerbated by the fact that my sister Megan is engaged! She is getting married Oct. 8. (I should be getting home mid-August-early Sept.) I returned to my site and felt really down, like I didn't have any tangible work, but then I threw myself into digging up work, and a lot of things I had been pursuing for a long time suddenly came together.
I helped to organize a girls' group (fifth grade girls) with their teacher and one of my best friends in my Malian town, Mata, who used to work with an NGO. (She helped with my HIV/AIDS Awareness day too. Her contract is currently suspended because of the financial crisis . . . it was a Belgian NGO, but I am hoping it will become active again soon. Her job was to go to small villages, give talks on HIV/AIDS and then return with a doctor and tests the next week. She was very good at convincing people to get tested.)
The girls are really cute. They named themselves Maimouna's Friends. I am trying to do empowerment with them, encourage them to stay in school, believe that they can have careers, etc. Mata has also come and talked about family planning (including condom demonstration). I asked the girls what they wanted to do and they said garden. I am in the process of trying to help them get PC funding through USAID for a school garden, but I am waiting on my community, because they need to hold meetings first to talk about their contribution (33%) with parent teacher associations, school board, etc.
I am also trying to organize (and I got someone from the mayor's office on board) sanitation committees, inshallah leading to trash collection, soak pits, or other activities. I think we finally figured out a good way to organize . . . .
I am also helping a cartier of my town to pursue PC funding for a big well. I somehow managed to live in my community for almost a year and a half without knowing an entire section of my town had a major water need. Their current well is really far from their houses, of poor water quality, and often goes dry during the hot season. A well technician is coming out to my site Tues. to give a quote (should be around 3-4 million CFA, approximately $6,000-8,000 USD). It is much more expensive because the water table is really low (it will probably be about 30 meters deep, maybe more). They are really serious and motivated about getting it ASAP, because hot season is approaching and ideally they want it done before then.
We have been having meetings and they have been collecting 5,000 CFA (approximately $10 USD) from each family, but of course collecting money doesn't always happen quickly. If they can organize their 25% contribution, then I will be posting that on-line soon so that people from the U.S. can make donations as well.
I have continued to work with mothers and malnourished babies, and I give talks at the health center when I have the opportunity (a Malian man who works with an NGO usually does now). Of course I talk more informally with my friends about health all the time. I go to women's group meetings. I socialize a great deal (shocking, I know). Drinking tea, going to dance parties, marriages, naming ceremonies, training sessions, meetings, funerals, etc.
I am going to be helping with organizing this year's 8 Mars celebration (International Women's Day). I proposed to a local NGO in my area that we organize a theatre competition between neighboring villages, and that his NGO provide the prize money, and I was happy when he said yes immediately!
Some of a Peace Corps volunteer's work happens outside of her community as well. As I mentioned above, I had the pleasure of spending the last week participating in a Behavior Change Conference on Health and HIV/AIDS with PC health support staff from nine other West African countries. It was fascinating to hear about other PC countries' programs, discuss the details of our program here, and the challenges we face in affecting behavior change. I have a lot of new ideas that I am excited to share with other volunteers of all sectors, not just health.
I am also the national coordinator of PC Mali's HIV/AIDS task force, so meetings for that, as well as other tasks, like helping to produce a manual for the group that came after me, sometimes bring me into Bamako.
Anyway, that's the sum of what I have been up to lately work wise. Socially and personally, it is extremely rewarding to feel my relationships and friendships with people in my community deepen, to feel increasingly integrated and more confident in my Bambara. To know I will be so sad to leave and that other people in my community will be sad to see me go too. And to have hope that I have begun a good Peace Corps legacy in my community and that the next volunteer who replaces me will be able to continue in that legacy--and create one of her own.
It is still very hard sometimes. As much as so many things get easier and I have become so much more comfortable, I am still not operating in my own language, culture, or country and I continue to daily run up against things I can't understand, culturally more than linguistically. Malians have an expression that I thought of a lot in the beginning and find myself returning to in the end, "a log can spend twenty years in the river and it still won't become an alligator" (okay, so maybe it sounds better in Bambara).
On a completely different note, I am now soliciting advice on my future education and job prospects from anyone who is willing to offer any. I am interested in getting a law degree and a joint MPH, and am wondering if anyone has any more information or advice regarding that career path. (Or ideas for jobs for me for the fall of 2010!) Or any other advice entirely, I will take it.
I hope everyone is doing well, please send me updates! I look forward to seeing everyone and catching up this year! 2010 which at first sounded so distant and remote is finally here!